PLANTED 80 CLOVES OF EARLY PURPLE & GERMAN REDS IN MID OCTOBER 2017 IN BED 7
Planted 2 inches down and 4 inches apart.
Heavily mulched with straw, and left alone until spring rains.
We had a fairly mild fall and winter and the bulbs sprouted quickly and grew well! The rains were heavy this year and I noticed the necks were already getting black. I was nervous they were going to mold, so I harvested about two weeks earlier than last year. This was a good decision as the heads were a decent size, not huge, but very acceptable, and in better shape than the heads were in last year.
Last year's heads were loose and cracking. This year they were smaller, but tighter, and not split. Split heads and necks cause rot and shorten the shelf life of garlic.
HARVESTED: 77 bulbs on JUNE 1st
I laid the garlic with the greens on a table in my office close to the cool air vent. The bulbs did fine, but the greens were overlaying. The greens molded quickly within the mound of greens. So, I had to cut a lot of the greens off and wasn’t able to braid all the bulbs because of the moldy greens. Bummer.
THINGS TO NOTE FOR NEXT TIME I GROW GARLIC:
• SAVE MY BEST GARLIC BULBS FOR REPLANTING-because I grow organic garlic I can easily save my best garlic heads for the next planting season.
• Pulling the bulbs earlier than they were pulled last year was a good decision. I calculated they only grew about 7 months instead of the recommended nine. Harvesting sometime around this time should be good, especially if I grow the early harvesting varieties.
• Plant garlic cloves in ground the first week of OCTOBER this year and plan to harvest NO LATER THAN THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE.